Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic and Republican leaders agreed to new limits on the filibuster
yesterday, an effort to speed action in the often-clogged chamber by reducing how often senators
may use a common tactic to slow the legislative process.

According to lawmakers and aides who have reviewed the plan, which still needs to pass the full
Senate, several procedural hurdles would be removed to allow bills to come to the floor for a vote
in a more timely fashion.

First, in a concession by Republicans, the majority party — currently Democrats — would no
longer have to marshal 60 votes in order for debate on a bill to proceed. But, in turn, Democrats
would have to agree to allow Republicans two amendments to the bill.

The changes, while falling far short of what some reformers were pushing for, are intended to
help ease tensions between the parties, whose disagreements in recent years have caused the Senate
often to operate in a state of stagnation.

Republicans would frequently filibuster bills by blocking a procedural step known as a motion to
proceed, thereby killing bills before they could be debated. Democrats would deny Republicans the
opportunity to offer amendments, reducing their ability to shape legislation as it moved through
the Senate.

The changes will surely disappoint reformers who were pushing for more-sweeping revisions to
rein in the filibuster, once a rarely used legislative tool.

The new rules will not include, for example, a requirement that senators be present on the
Senate floor when they want to block a bill from coming to a vote, continuing the practice of
allowing them to filibuster in absentia. And opponents would still have the opportunity to
filibuster a final vote on any legislation, thwarting its passage without 60 votes.

Though Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has threatened to use his caucus to push through
changes if Republicans do not compromise, veteran lawmakers in both parties historically have been
reluctant to force drastic changes in Senate rules, fearing they could boomerang if they return to
the minority.

As the final touches were being put on the changes, some senators expressed relief that they
appeared headed toward a resolution on one of the main issues that helped make the last Congress,
the 112th, unproductive and inefficient.

“I think this would be a real boost towards ending the gridlock which has bedeviled us,” said
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.